Have I Been Wrong About Him This Entire Time?
by EatMyRunez
Summary: The Ai Mai Mii trio absolutely hate Shidou. But after one of them has a tragic experience and is pulled into the Shidou's world, she winds up crushing on him! With the recent death of the Yamai Sisters and Miku, will he reciprocate? How will Shidou react? AixShidou pairing. ON TEMP. HIATUS
1. Chapter 1: The Worst Slip-up

**My first fanfic! Feedback and critique are helpful and wanted! I plan to do AixShidou(idk if he'll reciprocate yet) pairing, since I haven't seen anyone attempt it! Seems like an interesting idea, right?**

It was another normal day for the Ai-Mai-Mii trio. They were gossiping about the smallest of events among the students at school on their way to school.

"Oi, did you hear about that first-year that got coldly rejected when he tried to ask out his crush?" Mai asked her friends with a giggle.

By the way, the first-year was actually just asking his childhood friend if she needed help with packing up since she was moving. And she declined. Politely.

"Yeah! I heard that his crush just laughed at him and walked away. And as he was chasing her, he tripped over himself and face planted into the dirt! He even yelled her name while reaching from the ground and crying like an injured old man!" Ai added on with a snicker.

Never happened. The two friends waved to each other as they went in opposite directions for their classes.

"That's so lame." Mii stated her usual catch phrase in a monotonous, yet disgusted tone.

They proceeded to talk about and fabricate every single event that came to their minds on their way to school. Needless to say, they were enjoying themselves very much while doing so. Somewhere along the way, their most hated person came up as a topic. That's right, it's Itsuka Shidou. The three girls shivered in disgust at the mere mention of his name. Ai was the first to start the conversation.

"I heard that Shidou was caught doing something indecent to Tohka-san in public last week!" Ai stated, which was followed by a gasp from Mai and Mii. Ai proceeded to take out her phone and show them the footage recorded by a bystander. It showed… Shidou pinning a blushing, resisting, and dumbfounded Tohka and against a wall in a dark alley. That was actually Natsumi causing trouble for Shidou while he was training to use his spirit powers at will with Kotori on Fraxinus. Needless to say, it was impossible for the three to have known that.

"…Unforgivable."

"Lame…"

Mai and Mii stated, as they couldn't believe what they were seeing.

Just then, Shidou was sprinting in the direction of the school, panting and sweating. His path was blocked by the trio.

"Wh-what're you… I don't have time for this!" Shidou shouted with irritation.

Mai took a step forward.

"Want to explain _**this**_!? She shoved the phone with the video in his face.

Shidou stared in disbelief. After about ten seconds, he came to a conclusion.

"Nrgh… That Natsumi…" He grumbled.

"Hnn? What was that?" Ai questioned with a hint of triumph.

"Please! I'll explain that later(he literally couldn't do that)! But I really need to get to the school! The students' lives are at stake!" Shidou pleaded.

"No way, you're not getting out of this one!" Mai blocked his attempt to run around them(Which, if he wasn't so tired, would've been an effortless thing for him due to his training).

Ai stepped in.

"Trying to run away instead of taking responsibility?" She smirked.

"That's so lame." Mii added on to Ai's insult.

Shidou, however, was telling the truth. He was trying to save the students, in a desperate race against time, the strongpoint of a particular evil spirit…

_FLASHBACK  
_

"Hiya!" Shidou swung Sandalphon, which he'd learned to summon with ease, down at Kotori.

"Hnn, your swordsmanship has improved, onii-chan. But you're still light-years behind me!" Kotori taunted as she blocked Shidou's swing and sent a brutal kick to his gut, sending him flying around 40 meters.

"Guh!" Shidou was sent into Fraxinus' wall hard enough to create a small crater. He declared a loss for the nth time.

"Well it can't be helped, since I can only summon the weapon and not the durability, speed, strength, or reflexes of a spirit." Shidou sighed, knowing that there was no way he'd ever be able to best his sister.

"Excuses!" Kotori yelled nonchalantly. Kotori's attitude had been getting even more annoying for Shidou recently, as he kept losing to her. He'd already reached the limit of his patience. He couldn't rely on sibling love to keep him from going ballistic on her forever.

"Before you start running your mouth, get rid of your astral dress, and fight me without using your full spirit powers." Shidou challenged. His voice was so serious, he almost had a murderous aura about him, which kind of shook Kotori. But she didn't want to lose her strong front, so she played into it. Though her fear was easily heard in the way she spoke the next couple of sentences.

"F-fine! Don't cry when you lose, oni-nii-chan!" Her thoughts at that moment were: "_What have I done… I'm gonna die…"_

In a white flash, Kotori's astral dress was gone and she was in her school uniform. What happened almost immediately after reverting was…

"_Jouto_…" Kotori could barely hold her spear. Her coordination was also cut by criminally huge amount. Kotori saw that Shidou noticed, as he was just barely containing his laughter. In her embarrassment, she recklessly charged at him without warning. She hoped to get a lucky blow and then scold him for "turning his attention away from the opponent" and keep up her strong front. Though, this was not what happened at all. As she was charging him(more like dragging the spear on the ground behind her), Shidou let out an indifferent "hmph" and sidestepped her swing, if you could call it that. In Kotori's eyes, he was lightning fast, she didn't even see him move! Then she felt it, a light tap on the head with the flat side of shidou's sword.

"You lose. Hope that enlightens you on how easy you have it with the body of a spirit." Shidou said, trying to let as much of his built up annoyance out without seeming like a total jerk. Kotori, on the other hand, was speechless. Shidou took notice of this and tried to ease the tension born from what he just did by patting her head and suggesting they end training for the day. Kotori nodded silently as they walked into the control room. He let Kotori go in front of him, claiming that he needed to test a theory about his spirit powers. As soon as she left the training room, Shidou found himself in a dark void.

"Wh-wha…?" He looking around frantically with no idea what was happening. Then he heard a voice.

"Ara, ara. Who would've guessed Shidou-kun would learn to use the powers he had sealed? Keep this "training" up and I may not be able to keep myself from devouring you~" The voice stated seductively and playfully. The confused boy knew immediately who it was.

"K-Kurumi…?"

"Bingo!" Kurumi materialized herself in front of Shidou while approaching him in a seductive manner.

"Well? Did ya miss me?" She stuck out her tongue teasingly. The target wasn't amused.

"Kurumi, why'd you bring me here? What're you planning?" The boy caught on a bit faster than Kurumi had expected, much to her amusement.

"Well, since I can hardly wait for the _feast _I've got planned for today, I guess I'll give you a straight answer for the sake of _time._"

This alarmed the teen. "_Think. She could have a 'feast' just about anywhere, since the AST's no match for her. But she mentioned time. But the only thing that would require her to preserve her time would be… dealing with spirits. And the spirits as well as me(I mean, why else would she bring me here if I wasn't gonna be involved in this incident?) all gather up in a place that allows her to have a feast, and that place would be… !" _ Kurumi saw his eyes widen and guessed he figured out what she had planned.

"The sch-"

"That's right, Shidou-kun! I'll feast there on the students, the best wizard origami, and the spirits! And when you're in the peak of despair, when you're most _ripe _at the end of it all, I'll finish off my meal with… _you_." Shidou was in dismay.

"No way… You can't-!"

"Ara, ara. Looks like our time is up, Shidou-kun~ It was fun getting to see you again! I can't wait to see how tasty you all will be! Don't disappoint me~" With that, she disappeared and a despairing Shidou was sent back to Fraxinus. The teen wasted no time rushing to hq.

"Send me outta here. We've got a situation." Shidou's demands weren't listened to. Instead, Kotori's obsessive vice-commander got up from his seat and sent Shidou a glare.

"Who made you in charge? I don't know what you did in training, but my commander walked in here totally shaken up! I won't do as you say, the only person with higher authority here is Kotori-san." Kyouhei was clearly upset with Shidou, but the teen had no time for this. Shidou summoned Sandalphon and held it to the vice-commander's neck.

"Now."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Wanna bet?" The teen pulled his sword up and then swung down with murderous intent. A large crash could be heard throughout the ship has the impact of the swing had created a huge crater in the floor(and silenced the workers that were applauding Kyouhei's show of authority). Kyouhei, absolutely shocked, had just barely dodged it. "_This kid is serious!" _, the vc thought. The nearly killed man raised his hand and gave the signal to teleport Shidou.

"You… You better have a good reason for this." The teen gave nothing but a nonchalant "hmph" and disappeared in a white light. At that moment, Kotori, having regained her composure, came into the control room wondering what the ruckus was.

"Commander, glad to see you're back on the job. Had you arrived a minute or two earlier, you would've witnessed your older brother make an attempt on my life." Kyouhei stated matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, I was just out of it for a little while and-" She froze, trying to process the second sentence she just heard.

"NANIIIIIIIIIII!?" Kotori's shocked scream definitely showed that she'd gotten her a-game back.

"Commander, if I may ask… What happened to that boy? He used to be so timid, but now he's arrogant, murderous, and violent." Kyouhei inquired while holding his ears, which still hurt from his superior's earsplitting yell. Kotori's expression showed concern and sadness.

"You don't want to know."

_FLASHBACK WITHIN A FLASHBACK_

"**Miku! MIKUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" Shidou was holding Miku's limp body.**

"**Sh-Shidou… Y-You're not hurt, are you? I… I did well. R-right?" Even talking was an ordeal for the fatally injured girl. Even with the pain she was in, she desperately tried to calm Shidou, her love, down with a smile(albeit it was ineffective due to her shaky voice, wounds, and tears). Her vision was blurry.**

"**T-that's right. You pr-protected me… I'm safe, you did awesome, alright?" Shidou was talking in between sniffles and cries. The both of them continued their futile attempts to calm one another down and keep each other happy until Miku finally passed. It was then that Shidou made a loud, raging warcry. Ellen and her bandersnatches, as well as the spirits that she was engaged in battle with(that being Tohka, Yoshino, and Kotori) all turned towards the pained teen. He'd lost Kaguya, Yuzuru, and now Miku. All in one fell swoop. In one surprise attack of reasons unknown. He was enraged.**

"**I… I'll kill you all…" He stomped his feet, and summoned the true sandalphon. Unlike Tohka, who only had a small percentage of her spirit powers, Shidou brought out the full power of the sword(Remember when Shidou was shot by origami and Tohka summoned that huge supersized version? Yeah, that's the one). He took one step forward and repeated himself with enough volume for his voice to be heard for miles.**

"**I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" With that, he swung his sword furiously, destroying robot after robot with it. All that were out of its range were destroyed either by the shockwave coming from the sheer power or the energy wave that trailed it. The spirits, tired and wounded, decided to rest behind him. Ellen, with all her allies destroyed in a matter of seconds, made a desperate charge for him, putting all her energy into this one blow. She knew he had at most one swing at her before she made contact. If she could just withstand that… But to her surprise, Shidou was looking at her with a calculating and murderous calm. He turned his back on her to talk to the spirits, inciting her rage.**

"**Don't worry, Tohka, Yoshino, Kotori. This'll be over soon. We'll be able to go home as soon as I take care of this." The teen had a reassuring, calm, protective aura as he spoke. That along with his warm smile. The spirits relaxed, suddenly feeling that they could trust him to take care of the job.**

"**DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME! I'M THE STRONGEST WIZARD!" Ellen screamed as she charged at him full speed, full power, with everything she had. Shidou gave an unamused "hmph" and easily swung through her territory. He sliced her in half with one hand holding the sword before she even had a chance to react to the first swing making a cross-slash while covering Yoshino's eyes with his free hand. **

"**Wha… Did I… Lose?" Ellen, wide-eyed, died before she could even process everything that happened. Shidou hugged the three spirits right after. He was crying his heart out in the process.**

"**Everybody, I'm so sorry…"**

"**Wha, why're you apologizing? You saved us Shidou-san…"**

"**Don't be so modest, onii-chan! You really helped us out, we would've been dead without you!"**

"**Shidou, you saved us, why are you crying?" **  
**The remaining girls tried to cheer him up, but to no avail.**

"**I.. I couldn't save Miku, or Kaguya, or Yuzuru…" At that moment, he began talking to himself, the blankness in his eyes became visible to the others.**

"**Why, why couldn't this sword have come out sooner? Why did it take so much for me to not be powerless? It's not fair… WHY!?" The others were rendered speechless. None of them knew what to say to cheer him up. There was nothing they **_**could**_** say. As a result, none of them spoke a word until the teen finished his weeping and decided that they should all go home. With their help, he'd gone back to normal, somewhat. He'd managed to overcome his depression, albeit deciding to hone his spirit skills. However, that event left a permanent change. For better, or for worse.**

_BACK TO THE PRESENT WITH THE AI MAI MII TRIO_

The blue-haired teen was on the verge of attacking the trio in order to get by, but at that moment, the spacequake alarm rang. He took advantage of this opportunity to run past the three. They decided that they'd get him later and that their safety was most important, so they ran towards the nearest shelter. As they were approaching the entrance, Ai saw a nearby cat licking milk off the ground. Her fetish got the best of her and she went to play with it, forgetting completely about her current situation.

"Kawaii~" She mused, while playing with the cat's paws and throwing him up and down. The cat's licking his paws and wagging his tails didn't help. Mai and Mii's voices didn't reach Ai in time. There were police keeping Mai and Mii from leaving the shelter. It wasn't until the shelter's door closed, until Ai found herself in a completely silent and barren city that she snapped out of her trance.

"Wh-what… did I just do?" It was too late. She was left for dead and there was nothing anyone could do for her. So she decided to head to the school. So that she could revisit as many memories of school and friends as she could before her time came. As she entered the main hallway where the first-year classes was, she saw something no person should ever have to witness. What she saw was the entire student body, being eaten by clones of a single girl in an orange and black dress, with heterochromatic eyes and an inhumanly evil &amp; wide grin. All the students were knocked out, and still didn't wake up when they were slowly eaten at, in ways differing per clone. She saw missing arms here, a couple of lose organs there, twisted broken bones, and a lot of blood. She stood there, in complete and utter horror for what felt like an eternity. Then she felt it, a voice(her own) inside her head.

"_Run." _ Ai's legs trembled a little bit but stayed planted in the ground.

"_Run." _The girl's legs just barely allowed her to back up a few small steps.

"_RUNNNN!" _ Ai turned around and ran for dear life. She was heard and seen by one of the Kurumi clones, who gave chase. Ai had slid down the rails, vaulted over the cafeteria tables, but Kurumi's tenacity and ability to fly allowed her to stay hot on Ai's trail. This caused the girl to panic and take random turns. She eventually found herself in a dark corner of one of the buildings. The best thing she could think to do at this dead end was hide under the stairs that led her here. So she did.

"Ara, ara. Quite the interesting prey, aren't you?" Ai felt breathing down her neck and turned around. A scream and a desperate dash followed. Kurumi simply teleported in front of Ai and grabbed her by her neck, choking her before tossing her into a nearby wall. With that, Ai found herself unable to move. She just closed her eyes and cried, awaiting her inevitable death.

"Somebody, anybody, help me!" She thought, though she knew it was futile. Still she wanted to hold on. Kurumi laughed at this girl's display of fear. She leaned in and whispered into Ai's ear.

"There's nobody coming to help you." Ai's spirit and calm were completely shattered at that one powerful statement. At this point she could care less about going out fighting or with dignity. She just wanted to survive. Kurumi raised her arm and formed a swordsman-like stance, eyeing Ai's chest , as if she was planning to stab her hand right through it.

"HELP ME! PLEASE!" The strike to her vital point never came. After 10 seconds of silence, Ai slowly opened her eyes and she couldn't believe what she saw. Her attacker was beheaded, and there was someone holding a huge sword in between he two. Ai brought her eyes up to see…

"Sh-Shidou-san…?


	2. Chapter 2: The Ultimate Spirit

Ai sat there, dumbfounded. In front of hair was a blue-haired teen wielding a giant sword and a decapitated girl that had just tried to kill her.

"S-Shidou-san…?" Indeed, the teen wielding the oversized weapon was no other than Itsuka Shidou, the one boy that Ai(as well as Mai and Mii) despised with everything she had. He was the last person she expected to come to her rescue. He turned, having a never-before-seen(atleast for the Ai-Mai-Mii trio and the general population) warm and protecting smile.

"Are you ok? Can you stand?" Shidou asked with genuine concern as he stretched out his free hand, offering his assistance. Ai _almost _took it, before remembering how much she hated him, let alone touching him. Ai tried to stand, but her legs were numb and shaky. The moment she tried to take a step, Ai lost her balance and braced for impact. Again, she didn't feel pain. Instead, Ai felt a warm embrace and opened her eyes. Shidou had caught her and began carrying her.

"Wha-Hey! PUT ME DOWN!" The both flustered and disgusted Ai demanded as she began to squirm in his arms, kicking and swinging about.

"Now's not the time to worry about grudges." Shidou stated calmly. He was about to head outside to get Ai out of the school when he saw something… unpleasant. As he looked through the double door's windows, hundreds of Kurumi clones surrounded the school. He quickly shushed the still squirming Ai and ducked down, nearly dropping her.

"What was that for!?" Ai yelled as she finally broke from his grasp. She quickly stood up and pointed a finger accusingly at him, about to begin interrogation. Before she could even get a word in, he covered her mouth and brought her down under the window, hoping that they weren't spotted by one of the clones. Ai was about to start another tantrum when she was interrupted again.

"Shh. Look." Shidou slowly rose his head, and Ai did the same. He kept a hand on her head so that he could push her back down if she was too slow to avoid the gazes of the clones of Kurumi. The minutes Ai's eyes met the crowd, she covered her mouth and ducked back down much _much_ quicker than Shidou expected. Ai screamed into her hand and began to cry. With hundreds of cannibalistic clones in and out of the school, she was convinced that it was over and broke down on the spot.

"Don't worry, you're safe." Ai's eyes widened at what she just heard. She was enraged at the blatant lie.

"Hundreds of cannibalistic super-human women blocking every possible path and exit!? YOU CALL THAT SAFE-!?" Shidou covered her mouth.

"Shhh, they'll hear us!" He whispered. Ai regained her composure(somewhat) and nodded. Then, she saw Shidou… talking to himself?

"Pfft, weirdo…" She didn't realize, nor did she care that she said that out loud. The teen sent her an exasperated look as he continued his whispering.

"Kotori. We've got a situation, I found Ai getting chased by one of the Kurumis. We're currently trapped, I can't fight freely if I have to protect her. Can you teleport her up to Fraxinus?" Ai pouted. _"Can't fight freely if I have to protect her"? Was she just excess baggage? And look at that loser bragging, he makes it sound like he could take them if she weren't here. Wait, did he just say telepor-_ Ai's thoughts were cut off by a flash of light, causing her to close her eyes. When she reopened them, she found herself in the main control room of Fraxinus, though she didn't know that yet. Kotori was sitting cross-legged at her commander's seat, located a couple feet behind where Ai was standing, at a slightly higher elevation. The red-head sighed.

"This'll be troublesome… Yamabuki-san!" Kotori called Ai's name, but got no response. The blonde was still in complete and utter shock. First hundreds of clones, then Shidou appears with a giant sword, then she's teleported into this unknown(but awesome-looking) place. Her awe, however, was short-lived. Kotori walked up to Ai from behind and gave a sharp karate chop to her head, knocking her out of her trance. Ai was holding her head in pain.

"OW! What'd you do that for!?" Ai complained, turning to face her attacker. _"How'd someone that small girl hit so hard-!?" _Ai's thoughts were cut off by another chop. A vein was popping out of Kotori's head.

"It's not my fault I'm small!" The girl whined. _"Jeez, talk about self-esteem issues."_ Ai thought, since she immediately figured out that Kotori took her comment(which she didn't mean to say out loud) the wrong way.

Kotori coughed and regained her composure, as well as her usual condescending tone.

"You experienced a lot of unusual stuff in the past half hour, no?" Kotori asked-no, more like interrogated.

"I'll say!" Ai responded, a little shaky as the earlier events flooded her mind.

"I'm going to explain everything. From scratch. It'll take a couple of hours, but everything I'm about to tell you is _very _important. Make sure to pay attention!" Kotori stated with authority. Ai wasn't sure how much she could trust this little girl, but she sure as hell wanted an explanation for what happened.

"_Hai_!" Ai responded with a salute. Then, Kotori really did begin to explain everything from scratch. From Phantom, to an explanation of Shidou's powers and Fraxinus' mission, to the exact play-by-play of how each spirit was captured. Shortly put, it was easily the most rigorous two and a half hours of Ai's life.

_Back to the school_

Shidou, happy to have ensured his classmate's safety, went back to doing what he came here to do. He was killing wave after wave of Kurumi clones. He figured she'd run low on time eventually. In which case, she'd probably come out here to deal with him personally so that she could use her remaining time more efficiently. But wow, did he underestimate how much time Kurumi absorbed from the students in this school. Luckily, he'd long since received confirmation from Fraxinus that all the students in the building were dead, meaning he didn't have to hold back. Shidou, being able to summon Sandalphon's true, enlarged sword, could take out hundreds of charging clones with a single slash. But the reiryoku cost was high, and he was pushing his boundaries by keeping it summoned for longer than a couple minutes. He's been at it for almost an hour now.

"Damn there's no end to them!" Shidou yelled to himself as he took out another 50 or so clones with a huge horizontal swing. Sandalphon began rapidly shrinking in Shidou's hands.

"_Shimatta!"_ In that moment, the number of clones seem to almost triple. She… she was waiting for the moment that he ran out of reiryoku! They all charged him and he was submerged in the sea of Kurumis. Just then, the real Kurumi floated from the top of the now broken down school building and began walking towards the crowd of clones(they were clearing a path for her, of course). She kept walking until she was face-to-face with a bloody, restrained Shidou.

"_Ara, ara_. I can't wait to get my reward for using up all this _time_!" She licked her lips and was about to take another step forward when a vortex of darkness suddenly ignited, blowing away everything in sight, the real Kurumi included. While the clones dissipated, the real one was struggling to get out of the crater in the wall caused by the harsh blowback. When Kurumi took one glance at Shidou, she feared for her life for the first time. Moreso than when she was cornered by Kotori.

"Ugh… Shidou… kun?" Shidou's eyes were a dark purple with white pupils, the tips of his strands of hair were black, and he was wearing a huge evil grin that far surpassed Kurumi's. He'd willfully inversed! It was a little trick he picked up when the Yamai's and Miku died. His reiryoku had inversed then, but it didn't transform him since he wasn't as reliant on it as spirits. Though he was able to get back to normal due to the collective effort of the survivors, he never really got rid of the evil side born from that incident. The long time he spent wavering between the two made it that much easier for him to teach himself to inverse and to revert to normal. He figured that as soon as he ran out of reiryoku, he could inverse, thus switching to a totally different kind of energy altogether while his reiryoku recharged. Considering the fact that he could also switch to other spirits' powers and inverses as well, Shidou abandoned his humanity for the sake of becoming... the ultimate spirit!


	3. Chapter 3: Hybrid's Wrath

_Back at Fraxinus_

"What about the time he pinned me against the wall?" Ai asked while blushing a little at the memory.

"That wasn't him, that was Natsumi." Kotori nullified Ai's suspicion of Shidou for the nth time.

"Where was he when Miku was dealt with?" Ai pressed on, trying to find a single shred of truth backing up all the rumors she's spread and the mean things she's said(lol rhymes)about Shidou.

"He was with you the entire time, as Shiori." Kotori responded, getting a little annoyed.

"He cross-dressed!? So gros-" Ai exclaimed. "_Cross-dressing!? How do you justify_-!?"

"It was the only way he could get close to the male-hating spirit that is Miku." Kotori cut her off without batting an eye.

"But still-" Ai wasn't convinced of the boy's character just yet.

"He threw away his dignity and image to protect the school. Enough said. Any other questions?" Shidou's little sis defended him reasonably while holding in the urge to air drop Ai without a parachute.

"…What ab-" Ai had nothing left up her sleeve, no rumors, no nothing. But, just like her stubborn best friends, she wanted to believe all the things they'd said about the blue-haired boy.

"Denied." Kotori was past her breaking point, Ai didn't seem to notice.

"But I didn't even ask-!"

"I already shot down every possible misunderstanding you've had about my onii-chan." Kotori concluded Shidou successfully defended as a person.

"W-well…" The blonde was beat. She made a mental note to apologize to him for everything the trio's done thus far.

_Back to Shidou vs Kurumi!_

The inversed teen was now maniacally laughing at the person who attempted to kill him. Shidou threw Kurumi's signature pose, facial expression, and phrase right back at her.

"Ara, ara… Getting cold feet now are we?"

His sword dissipated, and his eyes glowed brighter, causing Kurumi to panic and send a wall of clones in front of her. A purple aura began to envelope the inversed hybrid and two slim blades appeared in his hands. The evil time spirit could sense his reiryoku sky-rocketing.

_'I… I have to retreat again!? Easy, Kurumi. You can always come back, as long as you don't tip him off the next time…' _The panicking spirit thought. As she summoned a clock to transport herself to a place explored by her earlier in time, Shidou's eyes flashed suddenly and the clock disappeared, along with the clones. Even the time spirit's physical and flying capabilities were shut off.

"*gulp* Ahh, that was good, Kurumi. I'm really lovin' this reiryoku stealing ability…" Shidou seemed to play around with his inversed form, observing its properties and attributes.

_'From what I can tell, the spirit weapons I use are changed into an alternative that makes for a completely different battle style, I can absorb extra reiryoku to use to prolong their duration without any physical harm coming to myself, and my basic physical abilities are tripled. This is amazing, but I can't stay in it all the time, or I might lose my sanity…" _Shidou was done researching himself for now and decided to deal with the task at hand.

"Kurumi… *hysterical laugh* I'mmmm goinggg to enddddd youuuu~" He mused while licking his blade. Shidou gave an accelerator-like laugh while charging at a speed that Kurumi's human form couldn't react to. In a single flash, she was neatly chopped up limb by limb in a sushi-like manner.

"Dinner, is served~" The inverse laughed out into the sky before switching back.

"*inhale, exhale*" The now-normal teen looked at one of the bodies and cried hysterically.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry I couldn't save you… Why was I given this power if I can't even protect innocent bystanders ignorant to the existence of spirits!?" Shidou screamed out, alone, pained, and saddened… Ai and Kotori were watching this from Fraxinus. The short redhead was gritting her teeth for about 15 seconds before deciding that she couldn't take it anymore and teleporting down there. She appeared next to her brother and wrapped him in a warm hug.

"Onii-chan…"

"K-Kotori.. I failed, I-"

"Shhh… You've done enough, onii-chan…"

Shidou cried into his sister's chest for about 15 minutes. Ai, who had all these misconceptions about the blue-haired teen, was shown this sensitive, loving, and dedicated side to him and was actually heartbroken by how torn down he was. The flashbacks of all the times she gave him a hard time suddenly held more weight and seriousness that she'd ever thought they would, responsibility tearing at her. _'Even though I may never be able to make things right, I can still do my best to help for the future!" _Ai thought, before stepping onto the teleporter. In a blinding flash of light, she was next to the close siblings.

"_Ano, _Shidou-san…" The blonde started nervously. This was harder than how she'd imagined it in her head.

"Sh-Shidou-san!" She raised her voice a little more. The hybrid turned around with surprise, as if he didn't notice her presence by the light emission and conversing.

"Ai…" He was speechless, Shidou never intended to let any regular person see how weak he truly was inside. He even managed to keep up a strong front while protecting Ai, even though he was struggling not to cry long before he found her.

"Yo-you're not a failure…" Ai started.

"What?" Shidou's expression changed from depression to surprise, as did his sister's.

"You're not a failure. You saved me, despite all the problems I know I've caused you when I was ignorant to this spirit world. A-and if you hadn't taken out that Kurumi girl, she would've just feasted on thousands more when they left the shelters!" Ai was doing her best to continue, despite her own embarrassment.

"You've saved the whole city, and put up with drama at school, both including me. I'm sorry, thank you, Shidou. You're a hero." Ai finished and bowed, her face red as Kotori's hair. This was the very last thing he expected from her. But it helped a lot, and he was grateful for it. He stood up and walked over to her.

"Ai. Thank you. That really means a lot to me." Shidou gave a genuine smile, which was returned by the blonde. There was a comfortable silence until…

"Hoho, getting all lovey-dovey in front of your little sister, onii-chan?" Kotori broke the silence with a tease.

"Wha… N-n-no!"

Ai was too flustered to come up with a good response, and Shidou just whispered in Ai's ear.

"Don't let her get to you, she just wants attention because she felt left out- URGHH!" His words were quickly cut off by a drop-kick to the face from the blushing, short redhead. She couldn't think up any insults or smart remarks to counter his statement(since it was true), so this was the plan she came up with.

"Hmph!" She looked away and folded her arms.

"_Oi!_ What kind of sister just attacks their brother because he understands them!?" Ai couldn't figure out how what Kotori did made any sense.

"It's his fault for understanding!" Kotori fumed.

"What kind of logic is that!? And he saved us all too!" The blonde didn't get it at all…

"Why do you care so much!? Jealous!?" Kotori taunted and stuck her tongue out.

"…This girl…" Ai was borderline gone mad at this point. Her face was red from pure, genuine anger and it took everything she had to contain it, even when she told herself to go easy because Kotori is still a younger girl. Shidou woke up at this moment.

"Urgh, that hurt Kotori… What'd you do that for?" The poor teen rubbed his head where the cement hit and wiped his bloody nose.

"It's because what you said was on poin- ow! That hurt you little..!" Ai was interrupted by the redhead's sharp karate chop again. As soon as the blonde was about to use the martial arts she studied on the short redhead, Shidou jumped in the middle of it.

"Hey hey! We just survived a massacre from the most powerful spirit alive! Shouldn't we be celebrating?" Shidou reasoned. The two bickering girls came to their senses and agreed.

"Kyouhei. Take us back to Fraxinus." Kotori demanded.

_"Youkai!"_

As the teleporter began to glow brilliantly, Shidou pulled Ai close to him, her head on his chest.

"Wha-!" Once again, she was cut off by the teleportation.

"Kotori, you know that was uncalled for." Shidou scolded. Ai was still pulled in, but the older brother didn't really notice.

"Sh-Shidou-san…" Ai stuttered.

"Look down, and you'll know why I did this." The blue-haired teen stated. Ai looked down, and saw a circle- the teleporter. She was barely on the edge of it. It didn't take long to figure out that Kotori meant for her to be left behind in the bloodied school. Her face turned a dark shade of red and she was about to explode when the boy holding on to her told her to calm down. He whispered:

"Kotori owns this ship and is the top dog among these people. The slightest hostile act towards her, and they'll consider you a threat." He was dead serious. Ai nodded nervously. Shidou noticed the spacequake alert being lifted and panicked.

"Crap! We need to teleport down now, before anyone gets out!" The only way down was by teleportation, use of spirit power to survive the fall, or fraxinus actually lowering down and dropping them off, all of which would've blown their cover if seen by a regular person. "

"Warp them down to my house!" Kotori ordered. In a split second Shidou was down with Ai. A random man saw them and yelled "PDA!" since they were still in the same position.

"Ah, sorry! I forgot!" Shidou apologized while dragging Ai by the hand and running to avoid the other people.

"Don't mention it."

"Ai."

"Hm?"

"Don't tell ANYONE what you've learned today, ever."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You're sis made that _painfully_ clear." Ai had a flashback to when Kotori was giving karate chops for ever wrongly answered question to see if the blonde was paying attention when Shidou's little sister was informing her about the spirits. Needless to say she got a good 50 or 60 of them.

"Ai, come on, I'll walk you home." Shidou stated.

"No, it's really fin-"

"Look around you." He interrupted.

"What're you tal-…" Ai looked around to see that they were in a dark alley, surrounded by motels and one strip club down the street before rapidly nodding.

"It's settled then. Lead the way."

"Okay." Her voice was shaky and she was clinging onto him so that predators would think they were together.

"Hey girl, why be with that scrawny loser when you can have a real man like me~" A steroid junkie flexed his bulging bicepts.

"_Yaada!"_ Ai refused.

"Oh, playin' hard to get, I like that~ It won't get you anywhere around here, though." He grabbed her wrist and attempted to pull her, despite the fact that she was struggling.

"Let me go!"

"Oh come on, don't be like that sweetheart~"

"SHIDOUU!" The blonde screamed in panic. He grabbed the stranger's arm, and squeezed it hard enough to where cracks were audible.

"What the hell!?" The man struggled but to no avail.

"She's with me. Got it?" He tightened his grip, causing the gym rat to nearly scream.

"Got it! Now f**cking LET GO!" He now knew what it felt to be the helpless one, and Shidou decided that was enough, so he let the man go. The stranger went full sprint in the opposite direction.

"Why'd you wait so long to help me!?" Ai fumed.

"You're completely unaware of your surroundings."

"AM NOT!"

"Is that why you didn't evacuate with the others? Or that you didn't notice the teleporter range? Or that I needed to point out the place we were in when you denied my offer to walk you home?

"Nrgh…" Ai had no defense.

"I had to let this experience be upsetting so that something dangerous doesn't happen to you again in the future. That's twice that your lack of awareness almost got you killed." Shidou stated with a protective aura similar to that of when he saved her from Kurumi.

"Well I'm sorry for being so unaware…" The blonde looked down, she knew he was just worried about her.

"Don't worry about it. I won't let it get that far again, ok?" He put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

"Yeah…" Ai responded, a little bit less glum.

"Not to interrupt your little lovers' quarrel-"

"WHAT!?" Shidou once again had to calm Ai down. _'That redhead irritates me so much.'_ She thought.

Onii-chan, you know you're not supposed to be using your spirit strength against humans."

"But I didn't."

"Yeah you did. No way you're that strong."

"Oh really?" Shidou took off his shirt to show a perfectly toned, ripped body. He took a picture of himself and sent it to his sister. Immediately he heard a squirting sound.

"…Kotori?"

"I-I'm ok, onii-chan… N-nothing to worry about…"

"If you say so…?" Shidou decided that he had to protect Ai right now and hung up.

"Let's go, Ai." The girl was still tugging his shirt while looking at all the place and people with fear and disgust. When he talked, she looked at him and got a nosebleed immediately.

"Ai!" He crouched down to help her up.

"I-I'm alright…" The blonde stated as she stumbled back up.

_"I swear, I'm missing something…" _Shidou thought as he put his shirt back on. After 45 minutes, they arrived at Ai's house and parted ways.

"See ya tomorrow." Shidou said

"How do you know? Ai remembered all the corpses at the school.

"Uh, school?" The teen didn't understand what Ai was getting at.

"But that school should be closed now, right?

"No, a lot of students and all the teachers managed to get away safely. Too bad not all of them…" Shidou stated, his eyes starting to look glossy.

"Shidou-kun…"

"…What did you just call me?

"What do you mean?"

"You just called me Shidou-kun." Shidou didn't expect her to call him that for months to come. Ai didn't notice until he pointed it out. She started to blush.

"Well… I…" There was no excuse.

"It's fine, it's fine…" Shidou wanted to stop her from embarrassing herself any further, or else he wouldn't have been able to contain his laughter.

"I can call you that?"

"Sure, unless you still hate me after today?" He teased.

"_Mouu_, I said I was sorry about that…" Ai pouted, causing the blue-haired teen to chuckle.

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry. I'll be going now." It was getting late.

"See ya." The blonde waved to her new friend.

"Bye." Shidou waved and then jumped from building to building, taking advantage of the darkness so that his face and figure would never be seen clearly. Ai smiled at the sight, and then went into deep thought. _"He's carrying so much weight on his shoulders, he's so amazing… I can't imagine how much frustration our trio has caused him." _ Ai recalled back to all the times that the trio stopped and harassed him when he looked like he was in a desperate rush. Soon, she checked her watch.

"TWELVE FIFTY!? _Chikusho!" _Ai ran into her bed room to get as much sleep as she could. It wasn't till she hit the sheets that Ai realized how tired she really was. _"A lot's happened today, huh… Shidou-kun…"_

Darkness.


	4. Chapter 4: Trio's Reunion

"AI-CHANNNNNN!" Mai and Mii pretty much tackled Ai for a hug. Even Mii was showing emotion.

"We missed you so much! Whahappenuyou? Wherererou? Telusevrything!" They were bombarding her with questions so quickly that they became incomprehensible.

"Guys, guys, slow down a little! I'm totally fine!" Ai reassured her best friends. Eventually, Mai and Mii calmed down, Mai going back to leading the gossip and Mii going back to her emotionless "That's so lame" dialogues. It felt good to pretend everything was normal….

"And then he was like-" Mai was about to continue, but then they saw Shidou. Ai was unsure about what to do, since she knew that it'd be near impossible to convince her best friends not to hate Shidou without giving away all his secrets.

"ITSUKA SHIDOU!" Mai called out angrily.

"What do you want this time?" Shidou's face was tired and his hair messy. He didn't look like he was having it today.

"Um, what happened to you?" Ai asked, much to her friends' chagrin.

"Kotori woke me up in the middle of the night because she lost her house keys AGAIN." Ai and Shidou shared a laugh before Mai cut in.

"Hey! Don't try to avoid the topic by trying to brainwash our friend!" She demanded while dragging Ai away from him. Shidou sighed as Mai went on her usual tangent and he signaled that it was ok to play along with them. Unlike all the other times where Ai actually believed all the things she called him and accused him of, this ridicule made her feel horrible. And she knew that Mai would start spreading more twisted or false rumors about Shidou all around the school(and they always stick) by the end of the day… _"How does he put up with all this? How'd I let myself be a part of this?"_ Ai thought angrily. The way Shidou was pretending that he cared about what Mai and Mii had to say seemed to make her more upset for some reason.

"Sorry guys, I gotta go. I feel kind of sick." She lied, and quickly ran off past Shidou in the direction of the school without giving anyone a chance to respond. When she looked back, Shidou sent her a "What can ya do" kind of face without the other noticing, and she ran faster.

"You made my best friend cry! You better go apologize!" Mai yelled again.

"That's so lame." Mii added on.

"Yeah, yeah…" The annoyed adolescent walked off, deciding to ignore what Mai and Mii had to say, until they blocked his way so that he couldn't escape the interrogation they had planned for him.

"Is it true that-" Mai began.

"Yes." He finished.

"But I didn't even fin-" Mai started again, a bit more upset now.

"Yes. Everything you accuse me of is true. All of it." Shidou restated.

"But- *RINGGGGGG*" The brunette was interrupted by the five-minute warning school bell.

"Gotta go."

"HEY! WE'RE NOT DONE YET!" She yelled, but turned around to see that he was gone.

"That's so lame."

"…ITSUKAAAAAAAAAA!" The famous gossip girl despised not getting the information she wanted.

_In the classroom_

During class, Ai and Shidou exchanged notes, much to Tohka's chagrin.

"_Mouu_, Shidou, tell me what you guys are saying." She pouted

"Don't worry Tohka. It's nothing all that important. But if you really want to know, I'll tell you after class, ok?" He gave a reassuring smile and pat the spirit warmly on the head, who beamed in response.

"_Un_!" The grape-haired girl nodded cheerfully. Just then, another note got passed to him.

"_Why don't you stick up for yourself? With the strength and intelligence(_both of which she used to think he lacked_) you showed me yesterday, winning an argument would be no problem for you!"_ it read. Shidou wrote a hyphen under the message and wrote his own:

_"It's draw too much attention. The dumber, less moral, the more spineless my image is, the better. In case something does happen where they see me using my spirit powers, the image they have of me wouldn't allow them to believe it was me."_

He rolled the note back. After a couple of seconds, it was thrown as a hardball right into his temple. His irritation was out the window when he read it, however.

"_That's just not right! Why are you trying so hard to keep it a secret anyways!?"_

_"Because spacequakes are viewed as natural disasters that lead to casualties world-wide. Not all people are as open-minded as you are, and most will simply blame the spirits' existence for the deaths of their loved ones when in fact, sealing the spirits the way I do turns them into humans. It's the only way to protect the innocent spirits out there being attacked without knowing why... If I can help all of them by taking a couple of false insults, then it's worth the trouble."_

Ai went silent at his response. He was really passionate about helping the spirits. She decided that she didn't want to be a bystander, she wanted to be able to help too. Otherwise it didn't really make sense for her to know everything that Shidou did.

_"Shidou. I want to help you in your battle. I want to become a spirit."_

His jaw dropped. She was forgetting something…

_"Did you already forget what I have to do to seal spirits? Oh wait, nevermind. I'm sure that was your plan all along~" _Shidou teased. He made a mental note to apologize to her later.

Just then, Ai remembered, and blushed furiously.

"Wha! THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Ai shouted while standing up.

"Yamabuki-san, would _you_ like to correct the formula on the board and teach the class?" the interrupted teacher asked, a bit annoyed.

"_Eto…_" The blonde was nervous and, for some reason, her mind seemed to go blank. She had top tier grades, yet her mind couldn't seem to operate… Shidou stood up.

"I passed a note to her during class that contained a lot of false accusations to annoy her. It wasn't her fault." He lied.

"Oh, harassment during class, Itsuka-san… Since listening isn't important, why don't _you_ teach the class?" The adult taunted.

"Sure." Shidou shrugged and walked up to the front of the classroom.

"Alright guys, watch closely." The class chuckled, expecting a prank of some sort from the incorrectly infamous Shidou. However…

"And that's how it's done. Now this formula is demonstrated in the text book at page 323 in the third paragraph. It's imperative that you memorize this as all of the formulas for the next two sections of this chapter will just be correlations of that. Also, while there's a complicated method to finding the coefficient to x in this equation… You can actually solve it by simply looking at the relationship between…" Shidou was teaching the class arguably better than his teacher. Everyone was wowed. He made everything seem so painfully easy that by the end of class, his classmates thought that their teacher was putting in extra effort to make them all fail.

"Before you go…" Shidou started aloud, but whispered in the teacher's ear while signaling to look at the window with his eyes

"Psst… spacequake over there." The teacher desperately looked outside the window for a good 15 seconds. In that time, Shidou wrote something on the board at lightning speed.

_"I went through the teacher's papers, and he has a pop quiz planned for tomorrow in chapters 6-7.2. What I just gave you was a study guide for that. Good luck, everybody!"_ His classmates cheered and thanked Shidou in unison before sprinting out of the classroom to go home, all in a noticeably better mood. The spirits, the trio, and the teacher remained. The older man was completely embarrassed and bested, so he simply left while sending a death glare at the adolescent, who simply shrugged in response.

"Wow, Shidou. I didn't know you were that smart!" Tohka stated honestly. Ai, on the other hand, had her jaw dropped. All the blood, sweat, and tears put into getting A's for every class, and then he comes in simplifies everything to the point of zero-study-requirements! She was impressed, surprised, happy, and mad all at the same time, but then remembered that he was covering for her originally.

"Well so much for your image." The blonde stated sarcastically.

"We both know that a certain trio –cough cough- will have the entire school looking at me like they used to by tomorrow." The teen retaliated jokingly. Ai, whom he knew cringed at the mention of the trio since the incident, decided to let it go this time due to the following circumstance:

"Shidou-kun, thanks for bailing me out there." Ai thanked.

"_Ah. _No big deal, besides, it was I who teased you, remember?" Shidou immediately regretted saying that last part. Ai's face had turned red, and he couldn't tell whether she was angry or flustered.

"I hate you…" Ai stated while looking down, hair still covering her eyes.

"Uh, heheheh… Ai?" Shidou laughed nervously, still fearing what kind of expression was hidden behind his buddy's hair. Ai stomped out of the classroom, refusing to talk to Shidou even after he dropped Tohka off and started to walk her home. Then, he sighed.

"I'll treat to an all-you-can-eat buffet if you forgive me." He stated, knowing that this was what she planned.

"REALLY!?" Ai beamed, which reminded him of Tohka. He nodded.

"We can go right now if you want." Shidou pointed to the wide selection of shops and market areas around her. She was too focused on being upset to notice them earlier. _'I really need to follow his advice about my awareness…' _Ai mentally face palmed.

"Thanks so much Shidou-kun!" Ai hugged him, elated.

"Hahah, no problem~" He laughed a little bit at the blonde's mood swing. Ai finally noticed what she was doing and jumped back.

"T-that was…" She tried to find the right words. He'd seen a childish side of her that she'd so masterfully kept hidden for years, and she had no plan B.

"You were just excited, let's go before it gets late." He pointed at the most famed(and by far the most expensive, but saving lives by preventing supernatural spacequakes was a higher paying job than one could imagine) buffet around and led her to the entrance.

"_Konbawa!_ Would you like to try our hot new spicy _oyakodon_? It's our specialty." A man chopping up meat and vegetables at a speed just under that of Shidou's greeted them warmly. He noticed Ai was too nervous to order everything she wanted, even though her mouth was watering.

"Um, yeah, we'll take that and everything else you guys have available." He'd checked with Ai earlier just in case she was allergic to anything.

"AHAHAHHAHA! Good one, man!" The cook laughed and wiped a tear from his face. No way in hell can two teenagers finish all of this food!

"The girl here's really hungry. I'm serious." Shidou stated, while struggling to contain his own laughter.

"SHIDOU-KUN!" Indeed he did say that he'd pretend to want to eat something to share the "bottomless stomach" title with her. He finally laughed a bit at how childish she was acting, and slammed some 3,000,000 yen($30,000) on the table.

"I'll pay double if you give it to us~" He mused while patting the head of his complaining blonde friend.

"DEAL!" The man tossed up the food he was cutting, arranged one of everything on the menu onto 14 trays, and caught the tossed up food in a plate in sushi form. Shidou made a mental note to make this man his cooking mentor later.

"_Arigato gozaimasu!" _The chef smiled brightly. The adolescents nodded and the blue-haired one carried all the plates to a nearby table.

"Bon appetite." Shidou gave his friend the go-ahead.

"_ITADAKIMASU_!" No sooner did she dig in like a starved animal. Thanks to a certain grape-headed spirit, her escort was used to this sort of thing and let her enjoy herself. Meanwhile, the other customers and employees stared at her like she had seven heads…

_An hour or so later_

BURP!

"Ahh, that really hit the spot!" Ai stated happily while letting out a 15 second belch that could be heard from across the street, despite the noise of the bustling crowds and rush-hour traffic.

"Let's go, I think we've drawn enough attention for one night…" Shidou's words caused Ai to look around. To her surprise, there were hundreds of people just staring at her in complete amazement. Many of them were recording with their phones, others were laughing, some older parents were telling their kids to look away, and some were chanting:

_"ALL HAIL THE GODDESS OF BUFFETS! ALL HAIL THE GODDESS OF BUFFETS! PRAISE THE BOTTOMLESS BELLY!" _while hanging up celebratory banners with her name on it. _'How the hell'd they get my name!?" _Ai thought. Then she looked at her payer, who was nervously laughing while scratching his head.

"SHIDOU-KUN! WHY!" Ai threw a couple of jabs at him.

"I'm sorry, they pressured me into doing it! If I didn't, we'd have an _angry_ mob chasing us downtown without you finishing your food!" He defended.

_'He considered my thoughts and personal wants more than I thought…" _She thought while blushing and then apologizing. That was filmed and posted to Youtube as the Buffet Goddess' true love, much to Ai's chagrin. Shidou figured it was only a matter of time before she exploded and threw a flashbang into the crowd made by Fraxinus for situations where he was drawing attention. Everyone, including Ai was blinded and stunned, so he carried her princess style and leaped over the wall of people. Before the blonde knew it, they were at her house.

"We're here." The hybrid said, followed by Ai opening her eyes. No sooner did her face flush a bright shade of pink and steam came out of her ears.

"S-S-Sh-Shidou-k-kun…" She didn't have the heart to say it, he'd surely notice her embarrassment and tease her further.

"What is it?"

"Er…" Again, her usual wittiness failed her in his presence. Just then, the perpetrator burst out laughing.

"I know, I know." He put her down.

"_…Ah re_?" It took a good 3 seconds for her to figure out that he just wanted to watch her struggle with her embarrassment before putting her down.

"Honestly, you're so obnoxious!" Ai fumed while storming off into her house.

"That's how you thank someone who treated you to an all-you-can-eat and then protected you from the crowd? Pftt." Shidou laughed to himself before walking home.

_At the Itsuka household_

"_Okaeri, _Shidou!" Tohka welcomed him back.

"Hey, Tohka! Sorry I'm late- huh?" Shidou's attention was diverted to the redhead who just kicked his abdomen and was holding her foot painfully on the floor.

"Kotori?"

"You're late! I'm hungry!" his little sister demanded, trying to hold back the tears.

"Kotori. Wasn't it you who taught me not to aim for the heavily defended areas of a person when in battle?" He crouched down on one knee and pet her head.

_"She really must've been lonely. To forget even the most basic of battle strategy is unlike her."_

"_Mou_, pat my head too!" Tohka begged, remembering how it felt today in class. Speaking of class…

"Wait! Shidou, what were you and that Ai-chan talking about?" Tohka questioned. After he gave them a play-by-play of his conversations with her, including the buffet incident, Kotori had a dead serious look on her face.

"What about her becoming a spirit?"

"That entire scenario was planned out so that she'd forget all about it." Shidou reassured. In truth, it wasn't planned at all, he was just genuinely spending time with his friend.

"What if she remembers?"

"Then I won't help her become one. When one becomes a spirit, they're sent randomly between our world and the spirit world for about a month, causing spacequakes uncontrollably. I might not get to her in time before the AST or Ellen kills her. I got lucky with you guys… I can't take that risk, I don't want to lose another important person…" He drifted on.

"As long as you understand…" Kotori walked past him and placed a hand on his shoulder before continuing.

_'Ai…' _Shidou was lost in thought.

"Shidou."

"Hm? What is it, Tohka?"

"I'm hungry."

"_A-ah_…"


	5. Chapter 5: Short-Lived Peace

"Ai-chan, Mii and I did some did some digging about your whereabouts and found out that you were spotted walking around with Itsuka in a notoriously dirty neighborhood!" Mai opened up with that statement, which caught Ai totally off-guard. There were even pictures.

"W-well, I..." She had to come up with a fake explanation quickly, she thought. But, Ai's worries left her soon enough.

"-Don't worry, we know! He forced you didn't he!? He didn't do _this and that_ to you did he!? I swear if he did anything to our friend, we'll pay him back tenfold..." Mai ranted, half expecting an answer and half expecting her friend to just keep quiet.

"He's so lame. Pervert." Mii added one more word than usual. That said way more about what she was feeling than one could think...

"No he didn't. Surprisingly, he defended me when some stranger tried to do... -gulp- you know."She didn't want to continue. This statement had adverse effects.

"It's worse than I thought! He's even scared her into such a submission that she'd lie to her best friends..." Mai was heartbroken. Mii's jaw dropped while emitting a malicious aura large enough to suffocate any bystander a half a mile away.

"No, guys, it's not like that. Shidou-k- I mean Itsuk-" Too late. They caught the way she was addressing him.

"SINCE WHEN DID YOU TWO GET ON A FIRST NAME BASIS!? That's it. Everything- tell us everything." Mai demanded, which was backed up by Mii's firm nod.

"He's actually not a bad guy. I was near the school, the one place that shared the important memories that I wanted to keep in case it really was my final hour." Ai was careful to pause, faking her fear so that she'd have time to think up a fabrication safe for the Itsuka siblings.

"Then, I saw a white spark off in the distance. It was a swirl of rainbow colors, swishing around like jello. Finally, it suddenly compressed, and exploded. No, the word explosion wouldn't even do the event justice. I was sure it was time, but then I saw Shidou... san... sprinting towards me. At the last second, he tackled me without warning behind a wall. I guess the explosive power lessened with distance to a point that the concrete could handle. If it weren't for him, I'd be dead." A lump in her throat formed, because the last sentence was entirely true. He'd saved her from that cannibalistic, evil, sadistic, heterochromatic, self-cloning virus of a girl... Ai held her shoulders and shivered at the thought of being so close to death, and her friends were there to comfort here, despite not truly knowing what went on.

"He walked me home, but I was too shocked by my close encounter with death to let him know that I usually went around to avoid the neighborhood, I just gave him the address I knew by instinct because my mind was in tatters... I enjoyed talking to him on the way there, so much so that I didn't even notice us entering the ghettos. Then, a bulky gym rat harassed me and tried to get me to come with him to do you know what. But Shidou-k, Shidou-san scared the guy off with a display of strength followed by a couple of threats. He'd started walking me home every day after that." Ai finished, surprised that the talkative gossip girls had remained totally silent the entire time.

"...I could think of a million things that you could be leaving out regarding that Itsuka's actions." Mai was in denial. There's no way that the person hated so passionately by the trio suddenly was Ai's knight in shining armor(though exaggerated, those were her thoughts).

"Ai..." Mai began again, with a murderous aura this time.

"What did he do." It was more of a command than a question somehow.

"I just explained everything. We're sisters, I'd never lie about something like that." Ai put her hands up to surrender.

"Liar."

"I'm telling you it's not-"

"Liar. I know he did something. It's Itsuka, we've seen what he does all the time."Mai restated through her gritted teeth.

"Why can't you just-"

"Why won't you tell us!?" Mai snapped. She was only worried about her best friend! Why must she be kept in the dark!?

"About what!? I've told you everything! There's nothing more to say! You're just in denial!" Ai defended, her patience slipping.

"I thought you trusted us. I mean, we've never kept a secret from you..." Ai was hurt by that statement. Because it was true. Ai couldn't risk trusting them in this situation, and it tore at her day and night. Ai had managed to keep those feeling suppressed, but Mai's outrage made all of the sadness flush out like water would from a splattered water balloon.

"I..." She had no defense. Aware of how her besties were beginning to find that what was said was true, Ai decided on a redirection tactic.

"You don't know Shidou-kun like I do. He's a good person, kind, smart, strong, and everything. You simply won't accept it because it'd hurt your gossiping credibility once word got out." Ai countered expertly at what Mai considered her profession. Mii even dropped her jaw for a couple of seconds.

"So that's how it is... Putting a boy we've collectively and justifiably hated for the entire school year before your best friends since childhood!? TRAITOR!" With that, Mai swung.

"Why does it have to be about choosing!? Why don't you just try to understan-" Ai ducked the right cross and took three back jumps while putting her fists up.

"I have all the evidence I need to hate that boy! Nothing's gonna change my mind about that scumbag of a person!" Mai charged again with a low kick fake. Ai crouched to block it, but was surprised to see Mai's swift uppercut. Ai just barely reacted in time, redirecting it and countering with a back kick to the brunette's abdomen. Then, Ai took the initiative, charging with a combination of jabs, knees, elbows, and fakes while Mai was staggering. Mai had only managed to dodge the first two or three due to being off balance, the rest –what seemed like 20 or so- of attacks hit their target(luckily, Ai knew the vital points and purposely avoided them). Before the fight escalated further, a pair of arms held Ai back. The same happened to Mai. The two girls didn't notice it, but during the altercation, a huge crowd of people gathered around. Two strangers had decided to stop it, knowing that one fighter was overpowering the other, which made the fight less exciting or suspenseful.

"You claimed that we were like sisters! If you want to prove it, you're gonna have to do a hell of a lot better than that!" Mai spat with both arms restrained, blood coming out instead of saliva. Mii sided with her on this one and followed her after sending Ai a death glare. The blonde was in shock, stricken with sadness, anger, regret, denial, and confusion. Just like that, Ai was shut out from her group of friends...

Then, she heard a voice inside her head, it sounded static, like a hacker who's digitally concealing their voice.

_"You have nothing now, your best friends hate you, your image ruined, say goodbye to popularity. And you lost all credibility in class for the stunt you pulled with note passing yesterday."_The voice stated. Obviously, it had its eye on Ai for a while now.

_"Who are you!? Why are you inside of my head!?" _Ai demanded in panic. All she could see was darkness at this point.

_"My identity doesn't matter. More importantly, whose fault do you think it is that your life was ruined so quickly? What was the one thing that changed recently to cause your thoughts and actions to sway? To lead to this outcome?" _Ai's questions were brushed to the side, and her emotions taken advantage of.

_"...The one thing that changed me?...Shidou-kun...?"_

_"Yes. Shidou caused you to have to keep a precious secret. You and your friends were arguing over your thoughts on Shidou. Shidou was the one who led you into that terrible neighborhood. Shidou was the one that waited until you were inside the school and cornered by a clone to take action. Yes... It was all Shidou's fault..." _The voice pressed. Despite how Ai hated it, the voice was getting to her. The teen's savior and only friend left... Ai began to doubt herself. Was her loyalty and truthfulness to herself that weak? To be so easily swayed by a complete stranger? This small weakness was all that was needed for the transformation.

_"Shidou's the one who caused this doubt to come as well. If only he disappeared, or never existed... You'd be having fun with your best friends, enjoying talks about rumors, blissfully acing your classes..." _The voice pressed. And it worked.

_"Shidou-kun's fault... Shidou...-kun..." _Ai ceased to feel, to think- or rather, lost the ability to do so.

Her consciousness faded, into a deeper and darker black than one ever thought possible...


	6. Chapter 6: Clash of Counterparts

_"Onii-chan! An inversed spirit just popped up on radar and caused a spacequake!" _A certain redhead screamed a shocking bit of info into Shidou's earpiece.

"I know. I'm already on it." The school was being evacuated already, but Shidou had slipped out of the crowd, telling Tohka to go ahead without him. He'd sealed his powers away at school grounds, so there was no way for him to sense the spirit's location.

_"But I want to stay with you! What if something happens to Shidou!" Tohka protested, teary-eyed._

_"Look, if you use your astral dress, either we'll both be weakened due to having to share the same power, or the AST will try to kill you, since you can't hide your spiritual powers when they're in full bloom! I can't put you in that position, Tohka… Not after what happened the last time…" Shidou's eyes were glossy, as if he weren't there, as if his body was here while his spirit visited some other place or point in time. The spirit-turned-human noticed this and went silent, knowing that the person she loved more than anything was going to stubbornly stick to his decision._

_"Ok… But please… Be safe Shidou!" Tohka pleaded, worry and desperation apparent. Just then, a familiar feeling reached her head- Shidou's hand._

_"I promise, I'll never die. Ever. I'm carrying the legacy of Kaguya, Yuzuru, and Miku after all… Dying would mean killing them a second time." His voice almost broke, and his eyes went bloodshot at the painful memory. Tohka ran off, deciding not to use up anymore precious time._

_"Save that for later. Gotta focus on the matter at hand." Shidou steeled himself and ran into the school to give himself enough privacy to let his reiryoku flow."_

_"A fight between a blonde and a brunette break out, followed by a spacequake in the exact same area!? Plus, my name was mentioned!? No coincidence." _The now energy-channeling adolescent pieced everything together quickly. After making sure that everyone escaped, he applied reiryoku into his legs –as well as a smaller amount everywhere else to protect himself from debris - and super jumped out through a wall in his school in the direction of the spiritual energy that he was now able to sense. He decided to take a stealth approach, running up one of the skyscrapers and jumping from building to building until he had a perfect view of the perpetrator. It was, undoubtedly, Ai. She was wearing a black chest plate and a red pauldron. She had a blue tee under the armor, as well as a red miniskirt with a lightning design(that was quite literally spewing out lightning bolts) and leggings with several spikes on it, as well as spiked bracelets and black boots that were red at the sole and point. Black gauntlets spiked near the elbow and clawed at the finger tips were present on each hand, with an ominous glow being emitted from the palm area. Ai's hair had several purple streaks that resembled lightning in it, and her eyes had gone from their usual light brown to a dark crimson, with a blue pupil. They were burning with empty rage and vengeance.

_"Damn, looks like a tough opponent with several powers. Looks like her weapons are part of her armor, so she'll most likely be faster than the others, especially considering how she resembles lightning and has less heavy clothing. Tch, I may have to use Yamai's wind- no. Lightning beats wind by a lot. They just use reiryoku to manipulate the wind which won't help me much. Going inverse may work, if I can channel enough raw energy to keep up with her while using my light daggers. But if I can end it with a sneak attack…" _Shidou contemplated with himself for a couple of minutes before deciding to summon Sandalphon, jump, seal of his reiryoku, and then release at the last second, which would hopefully catch Ai off guard and end it right there. He could easily sense that fighting would have to come before talking with just one glance of her eyes. Shidou steeled himself. If he deployed his reiryoku too late, then he'd be splattered on the floor. If he did it a millisecond too early, a lightning fast counter would come and there'd be nothing he could do about it. After a couple of deep breaths, he sighed.

"_Here goes nothing…" _Then he jumped, the wind blowing against his face, drying his eyes, pressuring his entire body. He resisted the urge to give in to his adrenaline and lose focus. After fully regaining his composure and refocusing his calculating gaze(though he did be sure to hide all murderous intent), Shidou's speed reached its peak and at that moment, where there was only a couple of inches between him and his inversed friend, the adolescent released all of his reiryoku at once, more than quadrupling his speed and swinging all at point blank range. The figure looked up and then smirked. Shidou hit the ground with an explosion, the figure's image fading like disrupted heat waves the moment his sword made contact.

_"Dammit! She saw me coming from miles away!" _The failed attacker cursed mentally before looking around anxiously for the real one. A blur came at him from behind and swung too fast for him to dodge, sending him flying into a nearby bookstore. Groaning, Shidou struggled to stand up from atop the several dozen knocked over bookshelves and crater in the wall behind them. Through the rubble walked a girl laughing maniacally.

"Nice try, Shidou-kun. But who really falls for a simple afterimage? Noob~" Ai teased, not losing the usual sarcasm of her counterpart.

"Wait, is it because you're not really a spirit? That you're limited to the speed and strength of a regular man, save the couple instances where you send energy to certain parts of your body? You can't hope to win like that…" The inversed spirit pretended to think out loud. Shidou stood up and chuckled.

"I'd been wanting to not use this, but…" Shidou tossed sandalphon away and inversed. There was an explosion that leveled the entire block. The vortex was exponentially bigger this time. The "victim" had purple eyes, white pupils, a viciously evil Cheshire grin, held two slim black blades that looked like halves of Sandalphon's inversed form, and a deadly purple aura.

"A non-spirit can inverse!?" Ai was generally shocked, but the doubt instantly disappeared as she remembered something.

"But that doesn't mean you have the body of a spirit. Heheh.." The blonde seemingly teleported in front of the smiling teen, yet his confident grin didn't budge. Not one inch.

"Oh, but I can be." The inversed human stated teasingly. He found out that, by unleashing all of his reiryoku and spreading it evenly throughout his body, he can transform into a false spirit. He altered his energy flow –which in turn changed his build- to give himself the body akin to that of a spirit. Laughing as Ai's face held doubt for a split second, he threw a roundhouse at the head of his enemy. In the place of the target, there was air, just as he predicted.

"So this will actually be fun, eh?" Ai smirked as her sweep kick was dodged just as fast.

"Don't disappoint me now~" Shidou stated, allowing himself to slow down to the point of visibility in front of his foe. They both took a step forward, and then the true battle began.


	7. Chapter 7: Reverse Inversion

Blue and purple lightning filled the area in haphazard, explosive bursts. Two powerful nonhumans were clashing at incomprehensible speeds...

_"Damn, she's pretty good... I can't afford to hold back...Too bad I don't have the luxury of enjoying it..." _The Shidou's inverse thought. His enemy shared his opinion about him. They were both equally matched and had been at it for about an hour, using only melee for the first 45 minutes of it. His thoughts were cut off when a swift roundhouse grazed his hair, just barely dodged. It was countered with a swift uppercut, which was also dodged. He used the centripetal force to effectively follow up with a spinning back kick with his left leg and a dagger swing in sword grip with his right. The blonde saw it coming, ducked the back kick and dashed back to avoid the swing. Ai threw a volley of lightning bolts at her adversary's general direction, which were all dodged when he ran behind a nearby building. The lightning, which didn't hit a conductor or a target, dissipated right on the spot. For a moment, there was silence. Then, the sewer plate rattled and Shidou burst out at full speed. The blonde, caught off guard, suffered a scratch on her cheek and a crippling elbow to the ribs which sent her reeling airborne while destroying a piece of her armor. She caught herself and, with much resentment, withdrawed into a dark alley. It was more like a maze, with multiple twists, and turns that she knew he wouldn't be able to track her in. Finally, Ai spotted a back door off to the side and burst into it. Once inside, she caught her breath and thought about the current situation. She knew that she was at a disadvantage, as her enemy was somehow able to switch to different reiryoku at will while letting the other recharge. The stamina-based melee approach would be suicide. She couldn't use the fiery attributes of her boots as he'd just use Kotori's power to absorb that... And her spikes were useless against the thick steel of his broadsword... Then, it came to her. He's only ever used one power at a time, and backed up to a safe distance before switching abilities.

_"If I can force him to switch at close quarters, then he'll be helpless against my speed!" _Ai wondered why she didn't think of this sooner.

_"What's she up to..."_ Shidou thought while surveying the area from the 15th story window of a random business building. He'd made sure to conceal his reiryoku, as the city's vastness and variety couldn't be made use of if he were sensed the whole time. Then, he saw her flying up, looking for him. He'd swiftly moved –on the stairs- up to the roof of the skyscraper, readying himself for another attack. Without hesitation this time, he sent an extension of his dagger swings with energy from a distance. He wasn't going to humiliate himself by falling for another afterimage... The figure faded and she popped up in front of him –as expected-, a sadistic grin plastered on her face. He swung at her quite excited to see her renewed confidence. The blonde ducked it and sent a scissor kick at his chin. Shidou sidestepped, and was pursued with a quick follow-up side-kick. He jumped back, but Ai sent flames out of her boots, forcing him to switch to Kotori's power(well, an inversed form of it) and absorb it. Ai's grin widened. _"Now's my chance!" _She thought as she excitedly charged. Her adversary's weakness was figured out and he'd soon meet his end. Or so she thought. In her excitement, as well as sadistic anticipation of killing him, her form loosened, her movements slowed, and her perceptiveness dropped. _"Perfect!"_ Shidou thought excitedly, making sure that his facial expression and his internal glee were contradictory. His perpetrator's thoughts were cut off by a swift kick to the now unprotected vital area: the ribcage. A loud crack was heard and she coughed up blood. The shoe was on the other foot.

Shidou took full advantage of everything- her surprise, slowed movement, loss of focus, and encumbering wound. Since the cat was out of the bag, he went all-out, attacking with his daggers, flames, using wind to pull her back in after sending her reeling, and finished with a fire-boosted punch that sent Ai flying downwards at sound barrier-breaking speeds. She channeled all of her remaining reiryoku and slowly curved her path to make full use of the momentum while adding on to it so that her adversary couldn't catch up. She went as far as her energy would take her, widening the distance, and then plopped to the ground. In case she'd somehow been followed, she burst(through a wall, concrete was nothing to a spirit's body) into a nearby house and, taking advantage of the smoke, concealed her energy – what was left of it -while hiding behind the kitchen counter. However, Shidou instead saw an opportunity. He switched back to normal and, using the Yamai twins' angel, created a huge volley of haphazard wind currents into and out of the house while also putting up an ice barrier with Yoshino's power. Taking advantage of his enemy's restricted movement, Shidou inversed again and sent a flurry of purple energy-filled extensions of his dagger swings into every area that wasn't affected by wind, accelerated with an especially strong current he placed for this attack. Finally, he finished with a dome of fire sent on top of the house's rubble.

_"Crap! Way different than the way I planned it!" _The trapped inverse was now held in place by a wind trap. Had she stayed in her hiding spot, her energy field wouldn't have lasted. He had her right where he wanted her. The surrounding fire made it hard for her to breathe, as all oxygen was being absorbed to fuel the flames. In the blink of an eye, she fell to the floor, unconscious. The victor ceased his attack and placed wind-based cuffs on all of Ai's limbs just in case she woke up. He decided Fraxinus' crew wouldn't be able to help and stayed amongst the rubble, waiting for her to wake up. After about 3 minutes...

_"!"_ Ai's eyes(LAWL, see what I did there- OW! Shidou! You KNOW that was funny! ;-;) shot open, filled with madness. She struggled for a good 30 seconds before it registered that she was being restricted. She mentally cursed for a good 15 seconds before noticing Shidou right in front of her.

"You've won... Do what you want to me." Her inversed self said bluntly. The now blue-haired teen stood up and said:

"Ai, I know you're in there! Wake up!" He pleaded.

"She can't hear you. I've got her under my contro-" She was cut off by a punch to the gut. She coughed for 8 or 9 times.

"Listen, fight it! You're stronger than Phantom! Don't let it control you!" Shidou amplified his voice with reiryoku, hoping that it'd penetrate to the darkness where she was locked away.

Deep inside Ai's pupils, a light sparked. Then, he saw Ai banging on her crimson red eyes.

"Help! Shidou-kun! The darkness... it's got me! Help-" Dark tentacles covered her mouth and dragged her away as she was crying.

"Ai! Let go of all doubt! Believe in yourself and in me! The darkness is a manifestation of what's in your heart!" But it was too late. His voice could no longer reach her. While he looked down solemnly, a laugh interrupted his train of thought.

"See!? She's mine. All mine! I've gotta hand it to you, though. It's all thanks to you!" Ai's counterpart laughed.

"...What do you mean?"

"She got into a fight with her best friends while defending her lovely little boyfriend-"

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRI- mmph!" Ai had fought that hard just to get that little piece out.

"Shut up, you worthless little wretch! Anywho, it obviously didn't go well. Then, of course, darkness began to sprout in her heart faster than Phantom'd ever seen! She immediately gave me the opportunity to awaken and possess her in one fell swoop... Now that she's caused a spacequake, the darkness only spread exponentially faster as she began to think that you'd hate her. Ironic isn't it? To stand up for you so passionately then to be scared within a couple of minutes to see your face...You, the person that she chose over her childhood friends caused all of this! Hahahhaha! It's just too funny!" Shidou had stayed silent, everything she said was his fault. He blamed himself more than she did. But, he cared too much about Ai to let it go like this.

"There's one way..." Shidou stated while looking down, letting his hair cover his eyes and walking forward.

"What're you- AGHH!" He put his hand on the inverse's head and began sending a massive amount of reiryoku into her.

"Wh-what're you-"

"Overloading her with my reiryoku. She'll implode, but I'm sure she'd prefer that to being used to kill innocents."

"Why you..." Shidou didn't reveal his real plan. White light began to pour out of every part of Ai's body that would allow air in. Soon after, her body expanded and then, just like he said, exploded. But at the last second, he surrounded her with his blue flames. Shortly after the implosion, she was back. He quickly inversed and forced himself into her head with the same possession method in that split second that she was in the process of being taken over by the same spirit a second time. His plan succeeded and he made it inside. It was dark, but he could see well enough. At a distance, Ai was being choked by the spirit he just fought.

"AHAHAHAHHAHA!" Ai's counterpart was laughing maniacally while choking her victim. Shidou used air currents on her limbs, rendering her immobile. Ai dropped to the ground, coughing and nearly limp, struggling for air. Shidou walked over to her and hugged her while shedding some tears.

"I'm so sorry that I caused all of this pain and suffering for you Ai. I never meant for this to happen..." Before the recovering girl had a chance to respond, he got up and walked over to the restrained spirit. Lifting up one dagger, he performed a horizontal slash, from the right shoulder through the heart, across the ribcage. The inversed spirit did nothing but smile sadistically before dissipating. He grabbed Ai's hand and reverted to normal, which ended the possession. Soon, they found themselves standing atop a lot of rubble. Ai's eyes widened in realization.

"...Did I do this?" She asked hesitantly.

"Your counterpart and I had one hell of a fight." Her savior answered somewhat sarcastically.

"You're explaining everything later..."

"Yeah yeah."

"Shidou!" Tohka yelled as she tackle hugged her object of affection.

"Hey, Tohka! Totally nailed that inversion reversal, don't ya think?" Shidou said while refraining from hissing in pain.

"I don't really get it, but great job, Shidou!" Tohka beamed.

"..." Ai was getting angry and she didn't know why.

"Tohka, meet the new spirit, Yamabuki Ai." Shidou pointed at Ai, whom was already acquainted with Tohka.

"You're a spirit now!? Yay, that means we get to live in the same place!" Tohka squeezed her new roomy with the force of a beast. Ai was choking.

"I... can't breathe... Spirifua?" The blonde passed out.

"Ai!?" Tohka and Shidou yelled in unison and worry. They began carrying her over to the place where former spirits resided. They were greeted by Natsumi.

"Hey, Tohka-chan and Shidou-kun- OWOWOWOWOWWWWWW!" Shidou pinched her nose incredibly hard.

"That's what you get for using my body to prank Tohka again." The aggravated azure-haired teen scolded.

"That was you!?" Tohka shouted at the shocking reveal. She then cracked her knuckles while emitting a malicious aura equal to that of Shidou's while he was fighting Kurumi.

"Uhh... Want cake?" Natsumi gulped.

"Not gonna work this time..." Tohka stated, her tone screaming the word death. Shidou was right behind her.

"Tohka?"

"Yes?"

"I give you permission to use your spirit powers."

All hell broke loose.

_**Next Day**_

"Ughh..." Ai held her head in pain as she woke up. The ceiling was a different color, and the bed felt different. She realized immediately that she was in a different room and shot up.

"Finally woke up? Guess Tohka squeezed you harder than we thought..." Shidou said mostly to himself.

"Where am I?"

"Remember when Tohka said you two could live in the same place?"

"Vaguely."

"That's what's happening."

"But what about my parent-"

"I already know that you live alone." Shidou interrupted, stopping Ai's attempt at getting out of her situation.

"Shucks..." Suddenly, Shidou stood up from his chair and sat on the side of the bed. He was looking at her intently, causing her to blush.

"Sh-Shidou-kun?"

"You're a spirit now." She had the same astral dress, but with white replacing black and orange replacing the red, as well as a the lightning blue streaks in her hair. Damaged as it was, it was undeniable.

"What? I thought you got rid of-"

"That was the evil counterpart of you that had caused you to inverse."

"Oh, so that's why I was getting trapped by darkness earlier..."

"You know what happens next, right?" Shidou smirked mischievously.

"Huh?" Ai took a good 5 seconds to figure it out before blushing furiously.

"B-b-but I don't even l-l-lo-" She was cut off by a pleasureful kiss.

**Me: Phew! Just barely made quota- I mean released this in time! Wasn't that last part adora- OW!**

**Ai: *Blush***

**Shidou: Aww, come on, you know you liked it~**

**Ai: Sh-shut up. Or else. *Aims oversized minigun at us***

**Shidou and I: o-o... *Puts arms up in surrender***

**Ai: ^_^ *Lowers minigun and walks away***

**Shidou: *Whispers into my ear* She totally digs me...**

**Me: *Whispering too* Seriously, what a tsundere...**

**Ai: Hm? *Chambers bullets and loads ammo***

**Shidou and I: *Runs for dear life***

**Love it? Hate it? Leave a review! I'll be alternating between the RWBY fanfic and this from now on, and thank god I just barely made that 2300 words – though I had to make this extra section to do so- cough cough... Until tomorrow everyone!**


	8. Chapter 8: Life is Cruel

Life at school had been hard for Shidou and Ai for the last couple of weeks. Mai and Mii hatefully spread all kinds of rumors about Ai(naturally, they were false) and told everyone that she had the hots for a certain azure-haired teen -though that part wasn't necessarily untrue. It's been taxing on both duos. Shidou now had the self-given responsibility of protecting the blonde from all the ridicule and harassment that she'd been getting recently gained notoriety in the school because of it. Meanwhile, his defending her only escalated the belief that the two were dating.

"I heard this is her fourth boyfriend in the past week! What a slut."

"Well, we all know how messed up that Shidou kid is, they're the perfect match."

"She's got looks, brains, and athleticism. She's just using 'em for the wrong things, so misguided..."

All these insults pelted her from all directions, rendering her too scared and embarrassed to open her mouth even once at school. Shidou(also known as skullcracker at this point) had to walk around while holding her hand just so that no idiots would attack her out of the blue -that's what happened the first five minutes of the school day after the fight. One day in the cafeteria, a banner was put up just above the stage. It was a string of insults from kids all around the school, and dimmed lights followed. Then, a schedule appeared on the big screen. It was a list of entertainment options for hating on the couple, ranging from stand-up comedy to parties, from skits and acting to sports tweaked to give players a common hatred of them. There were even two 15 minutes-long speeches that were well planned out to brainwash everyone into hating both of them. Ai, who was just at the double-doors, saw everything and sprinted away crying. Shidou followed her until he saw her stop at an oversized tree. She went into the shadows on the side of the tree that was facing away from the school, went into the fetal position, and cried her heart out silently.

"I... I don't want to do this anymore..." Ai pleaded, worn out and sullen. Her former best friends had made living simply depressing for her. For the first time in her life, she wanted to give up. Shidou sat next to her and stroked her hair.

"I'm sorry... this is all my fault..." He kept repeating, his voice shaking and his face streaked with tears. "I'm gonna make this right. Go home, I'll tell the teacher that you felt sick. Walk to school alone tomorrow, everything should be normal then..."

"Shidou-kun, what're yo-"

"Don't call me that tomorrow. In fact, don't even mention my name until someone asks about me. Then use Itsuka-San and say yes to all of their accusations of me. Ok?"

"But why-"

"If you want your school to not be a living hell, then please just do as I say..."

"...Ok." Shidou smiled blankly, waved and sent her on a wind current to her home.

"Ok, now or never." Shidou steeled himself and barged into the cafeteria, making as much noise as possible. The laughter ceased and everyone stared as he literally threw the person behind the mic into the crowd. He then jumped down, everyone clearing a patch for him, and walked up to a random girl.

"Hmm, you're cute... Want to become my property?" He asked, maliciousness in his tone.

"_YAADA!" _The girl screamed and slapped him. Shidou's face was forcefully turned to the side and had a red hand print on it. He hissed evilly.

"That was what Ai did too. I don't blame you, most girls do, but don't worry. One night at my house will change all of that...When I'm done with you, you'll be a good, obedient little girl..." He moved the girl's chin and forced her to face him. This time, pure fear was in her eyes. The crowd gasped, followed by all the men who were in the football and martial arts clubs coming after him. After promptly(although he vowed never to forgive himself) beating them all up without one of them so much as scratching him, he asked:

"Who else wants to get in my way? All women belong to me, got that?" Okamine-sensei shivered as she remembered what he said to her in the beginning of the year. She couldn't believe that she almost took him up on his offer. But then again, he's very different now for some reason...

There was silence for a good 20 seconds. Shidou laughed evilly and hysterically(like Accelerator) for all of it. Then Mai stood onto the stage.

"You monster! You forced my friend to do all of that!? Now I may never get the chance to make up with her because of you!" The brunette accused before convincing the crowd to jump him. So they did. Only this time, he didn't defend himself.

_"For Ai... For Ai..." _He kept repeating to himself internally. After a good 10 minutes of kicking him while he was down, everyone cheered triumphantly and threw him into the trash. Mai went the extra mile and kicked the container down the hill and into the lake. Shidou simply teleported out after watching the assailant(who came to personally watch him sink to the bottom) go about her business. He never came back to school.

The next day, Ai noticed that everyone was nicer to her. They started talking to her normally, and the trash talking had ceased. However, everyone pelted her with questions about how horrible Shidou must've been. Ai, following Shidou's instructions, answered yes to all of the questions and pretended to be extremely shaken up. It wasn't long before she got back together with Mai and Mii and school life went back to normal. If Shidou drifting in the hallways skipping class, hitting on girls, and getting beat up on a daily basis was normal... He'd made sure to tell Tohka and Kotori to go along with it. They decided it was too painful to watch without doing anything, so both of them stopped coming to school. This escalated the situation, as rumors spread that he was doing something to the only two people that they knew could still hold affections for him. Ultimately, the Itsuka household was broken into within a month and he was arrested. Shidou didn't resist, hell he forced himself past the police offers into the back seat of their car and said:

"I'm guilty."

As the spirits came running from the residence, Kotori was being held back by one of the police, and Ai sprinted over, they all saw that Shidou's face had a look of utmost depression and solemness plastered on his face. Kotori, after the police drove off, promptly walked over to Ai, letting her hair cover her eyes.

"Yamabuki..."

"I-" She didn't have a chance to respond as an uppercut quickly connected with her jaw.

"You did this to him!" Ai laid there on the floor, speechless and shaking. How weak she'd become...

"I'm sorry..." Then, Kotori gruffly picked her up by her shirt.

"If you truly give a damn, then you're going to help us get him back!" The angry redhead then threw Ai back down to the ground. The blonde got up and got into a stance.

"It's his fault we were in that predicament in the first place!" She said as she charged with a flurry of lightning fast jabs. Kotori expertly dodged them and then countered with a back kick, sending her attacker skidding a couple of feet.

"It was you who said you wanted to become a spirit! Plus, who was the one who didn't evacuate during that spacequake!"

"I never wanted that to happen!" Ai launched a roundhouse at Kotori's ribs, only to have it ducked by the agile target.

"I don't give a damn about what you wanted! YOU MADE THIS ALL HAPPEN!" Kotori sweep-kicked the blonde, knocking her off her feet. Then, she landed a crushing axe-kick on Ai's stomach.

"The only reason I became a spirit is because I met him!" After coughing up some blood, she recovered quickly with capoeira, landing a diagonal kick to Kotori's collar bone.

"YOU'RE ONLY ALIVE BECAUSE YOU MET HIM! QUIT BLAMING YOUR PROBLEMS ON OTHERS AND FACE IT!" The redhead back-stepped while clutching her shoulder in pain. She then dashed forward, faked a low kick and landed a rising knee to Ai's face once she fell for it. Kotori just pulled Ai back in and repeated the kneeing process. She then finished with a roundhouse kick to the side of the shin -a crack sound was heard over a large radius- and a spinning back kick to the ribcage that sent the target flying.

"Because you like wallowing in your own depression, hundreds of people are going to suffer or die!"

"W-what?"

"Shidou is our best and safest approach to the spacequakes caused by spirits. If he's restrained, then the problem will persist and people will die!" Kotori began shaking Ai wildly at this point.

"Because you like wallowing in your own damn depression, you're putting people at risk and hurting the one person who loved you! OPEN YOUR EYES!"

"Loved? He... loved me?" Ai had no idea. All the other spirits face-palmed and Kotori slapped her across the face. How dense was she!?

"Of course he did! He wouldn't even go through all of that for me! When he teases you, it's just so he can hang out with you while saving face! He had no trouble kissing you too! He even complained to me about how he wanted to savor it!"

"Could've done without that last sentence..." Kotori pulled Ai in and looked into her eyes with deadly seriousness.

"How do you feel about him?"

"I only think of him as a fri-"

"DENIED!"

"You blush around him and you always talk to yourself distantly about how you can never think correctly when he's around you." Natsumi jumped in.

"I DO THAT!? WHY DIDN'T YOU GUYS TELL ME!?" Ai screamed.

"That's besides the point. You even told me that you get this weird feeling in your chest and stomach when you see him with Tohka." Kotori added, recalling that one girls' night they had a couple of days ago.

"Fine. You win. I'm crushing on Shidou, happy?" Ai gave up. Everything they said was irrefutably true.

"If you care about him, then you're going to help us free him and then you're going to apologize to him. Got it?" Kotori stated; even the last part was more of a command than a question.

"Yeah." Ai nodded with newfound determination. Man, she really needed that. Kotori stood up and stretched her hand out, followed by the floored blonde taking it and standing up. The loser of the battle stumbled and fell almost immediately due to all of the fractures. Kotori then spread her blue flames over to Ai and her wounds began to heal. As the two walked, they passed the spirits.

"Let's rescue Shidou. Take care of him." Tohka said.

"Looks like this'll be fun." Natsumi and Yoshinon said in unison while smirking.

"I-I'm ready when you are..." Yoshino added, her face clearly showing her resolve. Kotori took the lead:

"Alright everyone! Let's go get Shidou back!" She shouted with charisma.

"YEAH!" Everyone cheered while fistpumping into the air. They weren't gonna let Shidou get away with his choice of actions.


End file.
